At 80, Still a Figure of Vitality and Influence

By

Larry Blumenfeld

Updated June 26, 2013 8:20 p.m. ET

Bassist John Patitucci remembers the LPs his grandfather gave him when he was 10. "I kept listening to Art Blakey's 'Mosaic' album, with Wayne Shorter in the band," he said in an interview. "Wayne's composition 'Children of the Night' sounded strange and magical. His playing was great, but it was his writing that reached inside a little kid who had no experience with jazz and touched him."

ENLARGE

Wayne Shorter (left) will play Manhattan's Town Hall on Friday.
Redferns

Drummer Brian Blade discovered Mr. Shorter through "Live at the Plugged Nickel," a defining example of small-ensemble interplay from Miles Davis's mid-1960s quintet. "I could hear Wayne as the connective force in that music," he said. Pianist Geri Allen was transfixed by a concert Mr. Shorter gave at Howard University in the 1970s. "His music felt really huge in scale, like an orchestra was there when he called on it," she said. "But it was also very delicate, and fragile. I began to think of these dimensions as goals in my music."

Bassist Esperanza Spalding was drawn to Mr. Shorter's work with Weather Report, which embodied fusion's best promise, and "Native Dancer," his 1974 collaboration with Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento. For trumpeter Dave Douglas, it was pianist Herbie Hancock's 1976 album, "VSOP," and Davis's 1967 album, "Miles Smiles." "But what really killed me," Mr. Douglas said, "was Wayne's playing on the Joni Mitchell album, 'Mingus.' He played so few notes, yet every one was a gem. How do you pack so much feeling into such a small gesture?"

Mr. Shorter's career invites multiple points of entry. Perhaps the most stirring one of all is his quartet of the past dozen years, including Mr. Patitucci, Mr. Blade and pianist Danilo Pérez. With this group, Mr. Shorter has scripted a daring late-career chapter, largely eschewing song forms and, increasingly, working in collaboration with classical musicians. "Without a Net" (Blue Note), released in January, featured the woodwind quintet Imani Winds; recent concerts have involved the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Rightly considered among jazz's greatest composers and signature saxophonists, Mr. Shorter now uses his classic works as mere springboards toward collective improvisation, and to foster what he calls "self-actualized communal leadership." A familiar melody pops up, but is just as soon gone. He rarely plays a conventional solo anymore. The music focuses on motion, dynamics and mood, without concern for style or credo. "At first we thought Wayne was going to come in with the scrolls and we were going to play what it is," Mr. Blade said. "But he had already moved on from all that."

Mr. Shorter's enduring vitality and influence underscore Friday's concert at Manhattan's Town Hall, billed within the Blue Note Jazz Festival as an 80th-birthday celebration, one of several such events through December (he turns 80 on Aug. 25). Along with his quartet, the program includes: ACS, a trio of Ms. Allen, Ms. Spalding and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington (all of whom have worked with Mr. Shorter); and Sound Prints, a quintet led by Mr. Douglas and saxophonist Joe Lovano, established stars banded together to develop original compositions inspired by Mr. Shorter's music.

Mr. Shorter's compositions are touchstones for development of jazz musicianship. "When Wayne says that a tune like 'Footprints' is never really finished," Mr. Lovano said, "he means it because he's designed it that way. He's inviting you in." Mr. Shorter's "Fall" prompted Mr. Pérez to think of basslines as melodic elements.

"Nefertiti," as recorded by Davis's quintet, is, for Ms. Allen, "a transformative moment for modern music, a major shift. It is still initiating breakthroughs in the way we think about the force of melody in that equation."

"As soon as I start to talk technically about Shorter's music I feel like it misses the point," Mr. Douglas said. "But his 'Aung San Suu Kyi' shows this magical interlocking of elements that transports the listener to a special place. There's the emotionally urgent, pentatonic-based melody, set against chromatically shifting harmony. There's the relaxed rhythm of the basic underlying groove, matched with a considerably more syncopated and sophisticated melodic movement. The song is so encrusted with detail that it's easy to forget that it's basically a blues."

The experience of playing and touring with Mr. Shorter is equally instructive. "Listening to him up close, I learned how to shape a phrase," Ms. Carrington said. "He doesn't play a lot of eighth-notes in a row. He figures out other ways to approach rhythm."

For Mr. Blade, it hasn't always been what Mr. Shorter played. "Even in his silence, he's contributing so much. He'll narrow his eyes, and I can tell he's envisioning things. He gives you a look, as if to say, 'Is that all you've got? Come on. Talk to me.' There's intensity to the intention, and that makes you give all of yourself in each moment."

Mr. Shorter's deepest impact lies in his approach to creativity. "When Wayne gives us music," Mr. Pérez said, "it's almost like a book group. We read about a topic, and then we'll be discussing it when we get onstage." Mr. Pérez said that, in directing the Global Jazz Institute at Boston's Berklee College of Music, "I make students focus not just on dreams but also fears: What are you afraid of? As Wayne taught me, that's where freedom begins."

At Mr. Shorter's invitation, Ms. Spalding recently wrote a libretto to his "Gaia," an extended piece she sang in premiere in February with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Beyond the creative process, the collaboration was profound for a rising young star. "It was nice to be in an environment where you don't have to be embarrassed about expressing just how joyful and excited you feel," she said. "Wayne just makes me feel like, no matter what I do, I'm okay."

Mr. Blumenfeld writes about jazz for the Journal. He also blogs at blogs.artinfo.com/blunotes.

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